Why More N.H. Women Are Choosing To Give Birth Out Of Hospital

Due to cultural shifts and medical concerns, more women around the country, and especially in the Granite State, are deciding against having their babies in the hospital.  The state’s medical community is taking note- some with major concern- and others trying to work out new arrangements to accommodate this trend.

*PRI's radio program The World is doing a series on pregnancy and childbirth around the world

GUESTS: 

• Dr. Tim Fisher - chairman of Surgical Services at Cheshire Medical Center/Dartmouth-Hitchcock Keene and Assistant Clinical Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth.  He also works on improving cooperation between home-birth providers and obstetricians in the region.
• Autumn Vergo – NH-certified midwife since 2009 and co-owner of The Birth Cottage in Milford, a freestanding birth center. She is also an adjunct faculty member at the Birthwise Midwifery School in Bridgton, Maine.
• Dr. Oge Young – obstetrician at Concord Hospital and former president of the New Hampshire Medical Society. He has been practicing in the Concord area for over thirty years.

LINKS:

• CDC numbers on trends in out-of-hospital births
• a controversial new study supports claims about home birth safety
• a competing study found evidence of increasing home birth mortalities
• a report on the newest CDC data, including graphs and charts
• infographic on home birth in the U.S.